On Monday, MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha, visited the Brits District Hospital following the exposure of the said video which made rounds on Facebook and WhatsApp. Sambatha says that an independent investigation to probe the incident will be conducted to establish who was wrong. 

Meanwhile, the provincial spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane, tells OFM News that despite the investigation and the visit by Sambatha, no-one has been suspended. He confirmed that the department does from time to time receive such adverse complaints about such incidents across the province.

He says the department does acknowledge that what was depicted in the video clip is indeed a true indication of the challenges faced by the Brits Hospital.

For this, Sambatha says he apologises to the patients, the family, the community and the rest of South Africa. In his apology, Sambatha pointed out factors which led to the incident and named those as follows:

“A team made up of the district, hospital management and system specialists from the National Department of Health identified a number of key issues that contributed to the incident and they include space challenges, leadership issues, clinical governance issues, weaknesses in support services and weak quality assurance processes. In terms of leadership, it was revealed that there is a lack of substantive appointees in key leadership positions”.

He added that the department then took a decision to fast-track the appointment of senior managers at the hospital, including the position of clinical, nursing and allied managers, as well as speeding up the disciplinary hearing of the substantive CEO. The department will implement all managerial strategies and monitor adherence to executive meetings, briefings, walkabout, reviews and establishment of management structures including labour forums.

OFM News